ARGENTINA: Austerity for Dinner

When austerity-minded President Arturo
Frondizi predicted last January that "a lowering of the standard of
living is inevitable," the warning could hardly be heard for the sounds
of high living. Over street fires, outdoor laborers at noonday broiled
tender chunks of marbled beef that cost 8¢ a pound; white-collar
workers lunched in restaurants on 17¢ beefsteaks so large they
overlapped the dinner plates. Sundays brought an outdoor churrasco
(barbecue) that began with meaty ravioli, went on to beef broiled over
a pit fire.